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Last Saturday the conditions were very similar to the previous Saturday (when my wife and I walked from Amberley to Arundel) when we returned to Arundel to continue our walk along the River Arun to Littlehampton on the West Sussex coast.

It was mostly overcast again, but there were probably a few more breaks in the cloud and it didn’t seem quite so cold as last week. There had been a little rain during the previous week but this had seemingly had little effect on the ground conditions, and the only wet patches were where the river was overflowing (this stretch of the river is tidal and it was high tide).

Technically our walk began at the railway station, but there is little of interest on the short walk into town, apart from the Arundel Lido, which proudly boasts the best value car park in Arundel.

Arundel Castle and Post Office

The real starting point was the bridge crossing the river into the centre of the town and although we were following the river we had to leave its banks almost immediately and make our way through residential streets. It has to be said that they were surprisingly nice streets with some lovely old buildings.

After about ten minutes we were out under the road bridge and back on the western bank of the river and heading out into open country. Ahead of us the countryside was mainly flat as we were heading away from the hills of the South Downs towards the sea.

The River Arun (heading south to Littlehampton)

For a long time the only real landmark ahead was the gas holder at Littlehampton, little more than a rectangle on the horizon. Behind us however was still Arundel with its rows of houses, church, cathedral and castle layered upon the side of the hill.

As we were walking away from Arundel we had to keep turning around to witness the town shrinking and disappearing into the greyness. The wonderful thing about the meandering course of the river is that every time we turned round Arundel was in a slightly different place.

Arundel and the River Arun

Occasionally the sun broke through the cloud, but these sunny spells were short-lived, although one break in the cloud did allow the sun to spotlight a row of houses in the town. Perhaps it would have been more spectacular if it had spotlighted the church or cathedral, but it was nevertheless an inspiring sight to witness.

Ford railway bridge

The midway point of our walk was the railway bridge at Ford, about 2¾ miles from Arundel. After a couple of miles of near solitude on the banks of the river Ford brought with it a flurry of activity. Although Ford does not have a particularly large railway station it is on the busy coastway line, with trains coming from the north (Arundel), south (Littlehampton), east (Brighton) and west (Chichester) and beyond.